


The Star Lady

by FaithWarrior



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Darcy Lewis's Taser, Female Friendship, Fluff, Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis Friendship, Minor Jane Foster/Thor, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:29:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22052557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaithWarrior/pseuds/FaithWarrior
Summary: Jane had always looked to the stars. Her ambition into the world of science was not purely academic. Jane was searching for someone that she had lost. And Jane continued to find friends and a purpose along the way.
Relationships: Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis, Jane Foster & Peter Quill
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	The Star Lady

The Star Lady  
By FaithWarrior

Jane loved the stars. The way the night sky shifted and changed making way for new views, but still came full circle every year. Shifting through windows into the universe. She loved its depth and its potential. Billions of possibilities resting out in the universe. Galaxies, planets, elements, life. She loved to explore the constellations and the stories that came from the past. She loved the northern lights that drifted across the stars. And she loved the darkness, stillness that came with being far enough from civilization to see the night sky without assistance.

There was only ever one reason Jane hated the stars.

Jane’s cousin, her sweet smaller cousin, loved the stars just as much as her. Her cousin was the one person she could count on to believe her theories of the possibilities that could live in the sky. She might have been the crazy Star Lady but her cousin, he was a brave little Star Lord.

Jane couldn't remember much of her father, and the little children's book of stars was a small reminder that he had ever existed at all. Jane's father did not come back from his mission on the challenger spaceship. Her mother wiped the tears off of both their faces and took them back to her family with a meager pension check in tow. The compensation that they got later didn’t do much in the way of healing the brokenness in their lives but their family did.

Meredith was her mom's younger sister. Close enough in age that the two sisters had been bonded by much more than the struggles of being a single parent. Peter was Jane’s best friend, co-conspirator, and cousin.

Peter understood her. She understood him. When she talked about exploring the stars with her handmade telescope, he was the one who wove tails of traveling the Galaxy with a killer soundtrack. They were thick as thieves, inseparable, fatherless, and ready to take on the world.

Then her Aunt Meredith got sick, and Peter’s light dimmed as his mother's condition worsened. He became quieter, withdrawn. Some nights, Jane would just drag her younger cousin out to lay on the blankets and simply look up at the stars as they twinkled in the night sky.

Aunt Meredith got worse. The entire family spent more and more time at the hospital. Meredith’s mind was fading with her health, the adults said.

Aunt Meredith told Peter, with Jane a supporting force by his side, about his father. She said he was a spaceman, and the doctors said she was getting worse. They said that the tumor was causing delusions and that all they could do was make her comfortable. Jane’s mom cried. Her grandfather cried. Jane and Peter tried to stay strong. Jane drew strength from her father's book of stars, clasped tightly in her hand with her eyes open wide. Peter took strength from music, headset resting over his ears, eyes shut tightly against the outside world.

The end approached for Jane's aunt rather quickly. The family gathered around as she gave one last gift to Peter. Jane gripped her book harder.

As Peter ran out of the hospital room, Jane pushed out of her mother's weakened grasp to fly out the door behind him.

When she burst out the doors of the hospital, she saw bright lights and doors closing on people carrying her unconscious cousin into a darkly colored ship floating in the air over the abandoned parking lot. Jane ran, but she was too slow. When she reached the spot where the ship had been, it was already too far above her. Jane burned the image of the ship into her mind as it turned to head off out of the atmosphere. On the rear of the ship was an emblem of a shield with a flame inside.

No one believed her. Not one person would listen to her when she tried to tell them what she saw.

“You’re just a kid.”

“Aliens don't exist, sweety.”

“Hun, I think it's time to get you glasses.”

“It must be the grief.”

“Poor thing is probably in shock.”

Everywhere she turned in her hometown someone was lamenting the tragedy of the Quill family and that poor confused Foster girl distraught by her cousin’s disappearance, but Jane knew what she saw. Aliens stole her cousin right in front of her, they were real, and her aunt had not been crazy.

Jane knew she was still a kid, but she was 12 and she was smart enough to know that the therapists weren't listening to her when she told them she wasn't crazy. So Jane ignored them. She passed all their tests and evaluations until they declared it trama due to the loss of her aunt and cousin. She pushed past everyone's doubts and judgment until everyone passed over her with a comment of,

“That poor girl has had such a shock it’s no wonder she’s so odd.”

Astronomical books gave her some insight, even then though the authors hadn't really believed that there could be other intelligent life forms out there.

Jane made it through high school and college at the top of her class. People called her crazy. She was the crazy space lady. No one cared that she made it through high school and college ahead of schedule until she met Dr. Erik Selvig, professor of astrophysics, her advisor for her graduate studies. The elder scientist saw her intelligence, though he didn’t agree with all her theories.

The entire experience was taxing. No one respected her in the science community outside Dr. Selvig. She couldn’t exactly go around shouting “close encounter” and expect not to be labeled a crackpot.

Her theories on the Einstein Rosen Bridge were formed from the concept that in order to transverse significantly relevant distances, a pathway must be formed that links the two desired points through space and time.

New Mexico was a boon, and her theories were set back. Thor’s explanation of the Bifrost, though helpful for her research, did not support the method her cousin had been taken.  
This lead her to believe that there was more to outer space then just the nine realms Thor had described existing within the world tree. By that line of reasoning, there must be separate Einstein Rosen Bridges that facilitated travel between parts of the universe.

Jane was livid when she found out about the Tesseract. It got worse when she discovered that Thor had taken it with him when he left Earth. To add insult to injury, he didn’t reach out at all during his time on-planet. It took Darcy several hours and a king's bounty of poptarts and ice cream to calm Jane down.

“They took all of my research, and then they call Erik in to help without even thinking that maybe the real girl would help more than backdated data.” Jane paced. “And even with it being wide spread knowledge now I still can’t publish my research or access more resources because the stupid jack booted thugs are blocking me for my own safety.” She huffed. “I say screw them and screw their protection. They can take their BS to some other scientist. This girl is slipping the leash.”

“You tell ‘em Boss Lady. Screw the man,” Darcy cheered. “Tomorrow this team of ladies is going solo. Team Science against the world.”

That night the two women bonded over the shared confusion and horror they faced watching the news coverage as aliens invaded New York. Sharing stories of their fears for the future and sorrows from their past. Two women in male dominated fields pushed past the glass boxes that continued to try and trap them.

“What is even the point?” the younger woman raged. “We fail and we’re weak and stupid. If we succede they call it dumb luck. If they ever admit to one of us being better than them it's because we’re a bitch.” Darcy threw herself down onto the hotel bed. “Kudos to you Boss Lady for telling all those shortsighted morans to take their opinions elsewhere.”

“Darcy, do you know why I even started this research?” The resigned note in Jane’s voice was deeper now in the dark intimacy of the room.

Darcy simply reached into one of their suitcases for a bottle of hidden wine. “Honestly Boss Lady, I have no clue. I think you're brave though.” She dug her key into the cork and removed it with practiced ease. “I know you didn’t do it for the money. Or the boys honestly. Thor was a unicorn in more ways than one.” The younger woman takes a deep swig from the bottle before passing it to Jane.

Jane took a large gulp before coughing.

Darcy took the bottle before she could lose it and patted Jane’s back.

“Sorry, I was more of a studier than a partier in undergrad,” Jane said, tears in her eyes from both the coughing and the overwhelming crash of emotions.

“Don’t apologize for being who you are Janey. You are a wonderful person even if you are a bit prickly without your morning coffee.” Darcy continued to pat Jane’s back in soothing motions.

“Why are you still here Darcy? You got your credits, heck you graduated. This is my insane crusade so why are you here?” Jane could feel the tear tracks on her face grow moist again.

Darcy was quiet for a few long moments. “Because you’re my friend Jane. We started this adventure together. You're the only person in my life who actually understands this stuff.” Darcy smiled shyly at her. “It’s been years since I’ve had a friend who didn’t judge me for my major or my body or the way I dressed. You might be a little cranky in the morning and have amazingly bad self care habits, but Jane you are the closest female friend I’ve had since puberty hit me like a freaking train.”

“Thank you Darcy. You have no idea how much I needed to hear that.”Jane knew she was crying through the smile on her face.

“Janey.” Darcy said softly to get her attention. “I’m going to give you a hug now.”

And then Jane was wrapped in the warmest hug since before her aunt died and Peter was taken. It was so different from those long ago embraces but still filled with the same love and comfort that she remembered. Her younger friend held her tight as she cried quietly into her thick scarf. Jane had never had sisters or best friends, but she was pretty sure this was what it was supposed to feel like.

“Thank you.” Jane whispered. “For believing in me.”

Darcy leaned back with a welcoming smile. “We need alcohol. I am mandating a girls night. We are going to get drunk, trash talk the suit monkeys and jack booted thugs, and share stories.”

Jane smiled. “I want to tell you. About my research, why I do it.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve never had anyone believe me. They all thought I had a psychotic break from the stress, they said that I must have been hallucinating.”

Darcy passed her bottle of wine over before turning to face Jane more fully and grabbing her hands. “Jane Foster, we literally ran over a Norse god and almost got toasted by an ancient war machine. That's not even addressing the fact that less than 12 hours ago New York was ground zero for an alien invasion.” An eyebrow raised. “I think the world is very different than anyone ever thought. And even if it wasn’t I’d still believe you.”

So Jane told Darcy about her sighting of the alien ship, and about what she believed from her experience. She explained how the new information from Thor and the invasion was so different than what she had witnessed as a child. All of her frustration came out as the two women passed the bottle back and forth.

When the bottle was empty Darcy managed to dig out a bottle of vodka from who knows where and handed it dutifully to Jane. Then Darcy began talking about her own life. As Darcy and Jane shared their respective pasts the two women grew closer. Darcy scoffed at the short sightedness of adults ignoring the words of an obviously brilliant child. Jane raged with Darcy about the injustice of people expecting things from her because of the way she looked.

“Darce?” Jane asked as the two laid on the dusty hotel mattress.

“Yeah Janey?” The younger girl said with a yawn.

“You know the worst part about all of this?”

“The massive mountain of NDA’s that stop you from rubbing everyone's nose in you being right?” Darcy asked bitterly.

Jane laughed. “No,” she paused. “I know that even with all of this proof none of them will believe me. They’ll laugh and say it was a bogus sighting like every other midwest corn town.”

“I know Janey, I know.”

By the next day, Darcy had arranged to get Jane and herself out of Tromso where presumably SHIELD had stashed them away. Jane was impressed by the younger woman's resourcefulness and promised herself to pay more attention to her newfound friend/sister’s intellect and interests. She was even more impressed by the younger woman's ability to complete all of this with what had to be a massive hangover.

Jane worried about her mentor, especially when all of her inquiries into Dr. Selvig had been not so politely rebuffed by SHIELD.

Lacking any ability to help her friend and mentor, Jane dove into the footage of New York that Darcy had cobbled together from the internet. It was grainy and mostly focused on the people and heroes who saved the city. Jane looked at other things. The portal, different entirely from the Bifrost in so many ways. Jane made notes. She tried not to look at Selvig too intently, it would help nothing now. The creatures were not like any of the inhabitants of the nine realms Thor had described to her. It proved her theory that life existed outside of the nine realms in the world tree.

Armed with a new purpose, Jane persisted. When Erik called from London reporting spatial anomalies, she packed up and dragged Darcy overseas with her.

Erik vanished though, so Jane was on her own, scientifically at least.

But then the spatial anomalies turned into trans dimensional portals and gravity field fluctuations. Darcy’s new ‘intern’ threw the car keys into the portal so that set an interesting bar for his intelligence, but who was she to judge.

Not to mention how not happy Jane was with the oddly sentient space goo that decided to take up residence in her body. Then Thor finally decided to pay a much belated visit to Midgard with oh so convenient timing.

Jane was a little salty that it took another world ending event for him to put in the effort for a house call to Earth.

Getting sucked into all of that was so much more chaotic than New Mexico. The danger and the powers at play were so much more than the science Jane loved.

Jane repeatedly wished that Darcy had been sucked up to Asgard with her. A political expert Jane was definitely not. Jane could have really used some of her friend’s pointedly timed comments.

Darcy had a pointedly sarcastic manner of breaking down political environments that Jane could actually understand. Her friend might not be an astrophysicist, but her mastery of political science and social engineering had gotten Janes loving respect and awe.

As Darcy would have bluntly said, Odin was an asshole powered by years of ultimate control and invincibility. He was a little drunk on power juice and superiority.

Asgard might be a beautiful realm, but it's King needed a serious attitude adjustment. Frigga was nice though, and much more aware of the balances of powers around her than her husband.

Jane had liked the queen and mourned her loss with Asgard.

Loki must have been drinking the Kool-aid too, because he definitely had a few screws loose. Punching him had been one of the most satisfying actions of Jane's life. Even though she was fairly certain that Loki had let her. Jane wasn’t stupid. With the force she put behind that punch, her hand should have hurt a lot more, even with the Aether power inside of her.

Watching the younger prince, Jane felt a little better about Darcy not being on this little adventure. Loki had the same child-like mischief that Darcy had. Even if it was buried under layers of spite and superiority. Lots of layers. He was animated outside of whatever hole Odin had shoved him into.

When she sat next to him on the skiff, she let herself lean into him for warmth. He seemed so much younger, closer to what her cousin’s age must be now in relation to her own.

“Are you daft, mortal? Do you have no fear?” the man asked, confusion laced in the derision.

“No. But you remind me of some people close to me. You aren’t evil Loki, just lost. And I’ve spent my whole life trying to find someone more lost than how you look now. Someday I hope I find him, but even then I know he won’t be the same. People can and will change, not always in a bad way.” She smiled wearily at Thor’s back and then looked at Loki. “You have people who are looking for you too. Sometimes it takes a little help to get yourself unlost.”

The god looked away from Jane back towards where they came from. Jane let herself drift off to sleep on his shoulder. Both of them missed the fond glance that settled on them when Thor looked back at the passengers.

The relief Jane felt after the removal of the Aether was immense. Like the Aether gave one last kick on the way out and now she could run for miles. However, the sadness Jane felt at Loki’s sacrifice dulled the relief and spurred her into an effort to stop the Convergence.

Thank the universe for Darcy. In the time Jane was stuck being patronized in the realm eternal Darcy had found Eric and had a partial plan ready to deal with the impending spatial event.

It took a lot of teamwork, but the Dark Elves were stopped, and the Aether was shipped back to Asgard with a cheery good riddance. Everything worked out. They won, even with everything they had lost.

After all the scary stuff settled down, she had manually generated spatial anomalies. Jane was over the moon. Her own portals. Granted the walls between the nine realms were already thin, but she still did it. There was hope, there were other planets and methods of intergalactic travel than just the Bifrost.

And the Aether had shown her the extent of reality. She could see all of the possibilities. Such a vast and vibrant universe. She knew that there existed something beyond the world tree now.  
Jane was suspicious of SHIELD’s radio silence on the whole event. Then the knock at the door turned out to be Tony Stark with the offer of a waiting lab, funding and housing for her and Darcy.

Jane packed her bags up immediately, stating, “I own all of my discoveries.” The billionaire nodded and they were off.

For Jane, the next few years passed quickly. Darcy mentioned that Jane must be really missing Thor if she was sciencing so hard. Jane snapped at her.

“Darcy It’s not about that. It's never been about finding Thor again. It's never even been about getting my research published. I could care less about any of that.” Jane was on a roll now. “That ship took the most important person in my life away. It stole my best friend away and I don’t know if he’s even alive anymore.”

Jane could see Darcy processing the new information. Her friend dropped the coffee that she had been holding on the floor before rushing over. Darcy caught Jane just before her knees buckled under the strain of remembering.

“I’m so sorry Janey. I had no idea, but that's no excuse. I know how important your research is to you. I knew it was personal and I assumed things and I am so so sorry.” Darcy’s own voice had become thick with tears as well as the two women sitting on the floor.

“Nobody else is looking for him, at least not in the right places.” Jane eased out of the hug to lean against the legs of one of the lab tables.

“Who was he?” Darcy asked quietly from next to her.

The two girls' hands were tangled up for comfort, so used to connection after all the years together. Jane squeezed her friend's hand tightly as she took a shaky breath.

“His name was, is Peter. He is my cousin. We spent all of our time together as kids. Once my mom moved us back to Missouri we were right next door, and we were inseparable.”

Jane looked at Darcy with a smile and watery eyes. “He used to call me Star Lady and I used to call him Star Lord. We talked about grand adventures through the stars.” Jane laughed. “He was always in charge of the music. You would have liked him Darcy. He was as attached to his Walkman as you are to your IPod.”

“Hey now that thing has over 30,000 songs. Even Stark will have to pry that thing from my hands.” Darcy scoffed.

Jane smiled at her friend's antics before remembering. “The day I saw the spaceship, the day Peter was taken. It was the same day Peter’s mom died.”

Jane could hear Darcys intake of breath.

“My aunt had a brain tumor. Inoperable and impacting parts of the brain. She used to tell us kids how Peter’s dad came from space.” Jane grimaced. “After they found the tumor everyone thought it was just her going crazy. Peter and I always believed her.”

Darcy squeezed her hand a little tighter and Jane took another deep breath.

“That’s part of why nobody would listen to me. Everyone thought it was the grief talking. ‘Look at the poor fatherless girl. Of course she’s a little odd she just lost her aunt and cousin.’ No matter how much evidence I gave or how many tests I took they thought I was crazy.”

“You're not crazy Jane. I know you're not crazy.” Darcy spoke softly.

Jane cried, “I’m sorry Darce. I stopped telling people because I was sick of being the girl with the tormented past. I should have told you about Peter.”

“Hey hey, Jane you have every right to your secrets. It's personal to you and it is your pain. You get to choose whether or not to share it.” Darcy reached around to pull Jane in. “After everything we’ve gone through I will always have your back. I’m glad you felt like you could share that with me.”

“Thor, he can take care of himself. I know that because I’ve seen it. Peter, he was just a kid. I have to know, I have to,” Jane said wiping her eyes with the sleeves of her lab coat.

“So lets find him.” Darcy said. “We know more about the universe now and we learn more every day. But Jane you’ve been getting more distant from the world. You need to eat, sleep, drink something other than coffee and talk to someone other than me at least once a week.” She stood up. “I’m putting my foot down about that.”

Again, Jane was overwhelmed with love for her found sister. Darcy was the first person Jane ever told who believed her and wasn't certifiably crazy. She simply took in stride that the sighting Jane had of the alien ship was much more intimate than she had known. So Jane fell into her research and let Darcy, scientist wrangler extraordinaire, handle the real world. It worked for Jane. It worked for Darcy.

The two women operated like a well oiled machine. It was a machine that tended towards some odd noises and the occasional puff of smoke, but it ran well and it got results. They made friends with the other residents of the tower and Darcy made a point to drag them both out of the building occasionally for some fresh air.

Then the satellites picked up an incoming craft. It wasn’t large, Stark wanted to hail it. The government wanted to shoot it down. The newly reinstated Avengers watched.

Jane, as the intergalactic expert, pressed the big signal button for them. It was just a waste of time to sit and wait instead of doing something.

Captain America looked at her in shock before moving to take the mic.

“This is Captain Steve Rogers of the Avengers Initiative. State your reason for entering Earth's atmosphere. I repeat state your purpose.”

Static then a click.

“Hold on I got this,” came through muffled. “This is the spaceship Milano, we have word from the refugees from Asgard including the space prince Thor. We mean you no harm. We’ve simply come to help.”

“And who is speaking?”

More shuffling was heard. “Ahh… I guess, um?”

“It’s not a hard question, moron,” another voice mocks in the background over the coms.

“Just tell them your name before they shoot at us,” a female voice says urgently.

Cap coughs subtly into the mic. Jane sees Darcy stifling giggles off to the side of the room.

The voice comes back on. “Hang on one sec,” he mutters, presumably to his shipmates. The man says in a deeper voice, “You may call me Star Lord.”

Janes entire body freezes. “No,” she whispers, “it can’t be.

“Am I supposed to know who that is?” Cap asks incredulously as the people on the ship continue to argue with each other. “I’m going to ask you one more time. Who am I talking to?”

Jane rushed forward and pushed Cap away from the mic, probably only succeeding due to the man’s surprise. Even Stark made a noise of surprise. Darcy was the only one who knew Jane well enough to make the same connection she had. The gasp she let out was followed by hysterical giggles.

“Oh man. What even is our lives?” Darcy was muttering. “This is going to be priceless.”

Jane took a deep breath and focused on the mic and the overlapping voices being transmitted over the communication system.

“Star Lord, I have a few questions for you. Answer carefully.”

“What questions? Who is this?” The man, Star Lord’s, voice came through cautiously.

“Who is the King of Music? How many states are there in the United States? And what is the best constellation in the sky? Jane’s voice broke on the last question.

“Who are you?” The self proclaimed Star Lord asked again suspicion dressed with a slight bit of disbelieving hope.

“Please answer.” She whispered, barely being picked up by the mic.

The man begins cautiously, like this is the most important test he will ever take. It might be. “ Elvis Presley is the King.” He took a breath “Ah, America had 50 states last I knew.” He paused again, a little longer. “And the best constellation in earth's sky is Gemini, the twins. The eternal team-up.” He exhaled shakily as he finished.

Jane sobbed. “Oh my God. It’s really you.”

“Please?” his voice shook.

Jane feels Darcy move up behind her. The supportive presence of her friend encouraged giddy laughter to bubble up in relief.

Jane turns around to face the gathered heroes. “You can call off the attack plan.” She tells Stark and Cap. She then turns back to the mic to address the increasingly panicked Star Lord on the other end.

“Sorry about that, just had to make sure nobody got over enthusiastic with their trigger fingers.” Jane says confidently. Darcy’s renewed giggles at the looks on the heroes faces gives her the confidence to continue. “As for me, well I’m the leading expert in astrophysics and interdimensional or interplanetary travel on earth.”

Stark scoffed in offense but quelled under Darcy’s glare.

“But you Star Lord, you can refer to me as Star Lady. Might as well use the matched set.” Jane could feel the tears streaming down her face as she smiles.

“Janie?” His voice sounded strained as well.

“Yeah Petey, it's me. We’re both a long way from stargazing in an old tree house aren't we?” She can hear the tears in her own voice now.

“It’s really good to hear your voice, cuz. Even if you do sound a whole lot older.” Peter’s voice had that hint of laughter it's always had. “You think we could land somewhere? Also we have quite a few refugees coming in behind us. My ship isn't quite built to hold that many people. Both ships are getting low on fuel.”

“Yeah, sorry Pete. I’ll hand you off now that Cap doesn't need to interrogate you.” Jane gestured Darcy to let Stark pass through to the mic. “Sorry for the commotion Tony. Let me introduce you to my cousin Peter Quill. Peter, this is Tony Stark. Lets get that ship landed so I can have a lovely reunion with my cousin while Darcy prepares to read Thor the riot act on appropriate handling of intergalactic romance. A girl has to have priorities.”

“And a fully charged taser,” Darcy piped in.

Peter laughed. “I can’t wait to introduce you to my team. Get this Janie, we’re the Guardians of the Galaxy.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to get this out before the start of the new year. my first post please be kind.


End file.
